Best of iAGRI

My time with the Innovative Agricultural Research Institute (iAGRI) in Tanzania has drawn to a close. iAGRI is a USAID/Feed the Future-funded capacity building initiative that works to make Tanzania more food secure by training and funding advanced degree scholarships for Tanzanian agricultural professionals and bright student researchers. Aside from receiving professional training throughout their experience, accepted scholars are sent to study abroad at one of six leading consortium universities in the United States, led by Ohio State University, as well as agricultural universities throughout Africa, India and China.

From February 3rd through April 25th, I served as iAGRI's writer and photographer, living at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania and traveling around the country to meet with, interview and write personal stories of each scholar's iAGRI experience. With 120 total scholars to be funded in iAGRI's initial five years, I could only cover a fraction of them in my time there, but did what I could, often working long days and through most weekends to get a visual, narrative-based website up and running, thereby building a foundation that future iAGRI writer/photographers can add to.

I'm extremely proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to such a worthwhile development project and to have gotten to work with the extremely dedicated Tanzanian and American staff that keep iAGRI running. The brilliant and ambitious students I covered became friends and I appreciate them being gracious enough for me to document their research as it was taking place in the villages throughout Tanzania. It's been a privilege to have had been able to get my feet wet with aid and development work through iAGRI and I'm looking forward to more such opportunities in the future.

Below are select images from a few of my favorite stories that I wrote and documented during my time in Tanzania. Please be sure to click on the links below each image in order to visit the iAGRI story-telling website so that you can see more images and read about what exceptional students the iAGRI scholarship recipients are.